By Clestine Juan
SHELEZA Khan, the ex-wife of self-confessed drug-trafficker Barry Dataram, along with three others who were last Friday busted at a house with over 170 pounds of marijuana, has been remanded to prison.Her associates: Balkissoon Ramdass, Felicia Laundry and Andrea Puran, all of West Bank Demerara, appeared with her before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan, jointly charged with drug
trafficking.
The court heard that between June7 and June 9, at Roraima Housing Scheme, WCD, they had 76 kilograms, 910 grams of cannabis in their possession for the purpose of trafficking.
Represented by attorney-at-law Mark Waldron, they all denied the charge.
Balkissoon Ramdass was separately charged with aiding persons known and unknown to traffic narcotics at Roraima Housing Scheme, WBD. He pleaded not guilty. According to the lawyer, Ramdass is a 54-year-old businessman who lives in Roraima Housing Scheme along with his reputed wife, Andrea Puran, and their three children.
Khan is a 34-year-old housewife who lives at Versailles, WBD with her two children. Laundry is a 28-year-old mother of two who lives in Evergreen Street, Versailles, WBD.
The Chief Magistrate has remanded them until June 24, and transferred the matter before the Vreed-en-Hoop magistrate.
The Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), acting on a tip-off, conducted the raid, seized 170 pounds of cannabis, and arrested the four accused.
Sheleza Khan, Dataram’s ex-wife, gained notoriety in December 2007 when she and her three-year-old daughter were kidnapped by two Venezuelans, one of whom was later shot dead in a confrontation with the police.
